1. Occupy protesters shifted their focus to foreclosures yesterday, as demonstrators throughout the nation, including Oakland, helped those who have lost their homes to re-occupy them, the Chron reports. The Occupy Our Homes demonstrations also included protests at banks and foreclosure auctions on the county courthouse steps. So far, the Obama administration’s feeble attempts to help homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages avoid foreclosure have failed.

3. A new study from UC San Francisco confirms that cannabis is a safe and effective treatment for relieving chronic pain, especially when used in concert with narcotic drugs such as morphine, the Chron reports. It’s not clear, however, why pot works synergistically with narcotics to relieve pain. And getting funds for further studies will be difficult because of the federal crackdown on medical pot.

7. Copper thieves are bedeviling BART and other public agencies, the Chron reports. The brazen thieves have ripped copper from BART tracks and slowed agency projects, and have stripped copper out of light posts in Vallejo, plunging parts of the city into darkness.